I spe for e okay good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided through the posting mailing and filing of the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings of the
Town Council on December 17 2024 the notice was on that date posted on the bill bulletin board in the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader and the Star Ledger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield Miss lashi May I have a roll call Mayor
brindle acting mayor hav here council members dardia here dagala here Keir here Saunders here armento here contract here H here please rise for the invocation which will be given by councilman armento and then remain
standing for the salute to the flag we come together today to serve our community with dedication and Care let us be mindful of the needs of all and approach our duties with compassion and and fairness may we find unity in our diversity and strength in our collaboration help us to be good
stewards of the trust placed in us thank you for the opportunity to serve to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all good evening everyone and thanks for joining us both in person and online tonight I'm filling in for mayor brindle and my role as acting mayor this evening and as a reminder public comment will be accepted in person only we're streaming
live on YouTube live and as always the replay will also be available afterwards on Facebook YouTube and tv36 um as just a couple reminders please don't miss the wonderful Black History Month lineup That is uh now on
display thanks to the Friends of the Westfield Memorial Library at the Westfield Memorial Library it's in the meeting room um this collaboration was achieved through the friends the West Memorial Library and the Martin Luth King Martin Luther King Jr Association
and it's a portrait gallery featuring 14 artists uh 14 um paintings of people who um have spoken the truth I had a chance to see it the other night um at the unveiling and I would definitely encourage you to go
check out all of the portraits it's quite moving um and there's a there's also an event happening this coming Tuesday at 7: to 8 uh p.m so there's um specific events and then there's also
just times when you can go into the meeting room and check out the uh gallery please do it and I think you can see more details on the library website um in terms of the legislative items for tonight we have a few topics of Interest first we have a resolution to approve
the 2025 sewer fees I'm pleased to report that the finance policy committee is recommending no increase this year and will keep the rates unchanged for 2024 we have a resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of a replacement main pool cover for the
Memorial Pool and that will be funded out of the pool budget getting ready for the summer um we have a resolution to authorize participation and support for the community solar program which is a state authorized and regulated program that makes solar energy available to
homeowners with have without having to place solar panels directly on their own homes this action will renew our participation in the program which we first um accomplished in 2022 and we're expanding the program so that's also
good news we have a resolution authorizing a local property acquisition Grant agreement with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to accept a grant award this is another required step in the process for the property acquisition of 200 South Avenue which is
the Mr goodl property no closing dates been announced yet um the process continues but we would like to start moving the things ahead that we can and lastly at the recommendation of the public safety transportation and parking committee we have an ordinance on first
reading to authorize the installation of a stop sign at the intersection of Lennox Avenue and Benson place which is currently an uncontrolled intersection um but before we get to the regularly scheduled meeting agenda for tonight we'd like to welcome the members
of the Board of Trustees for the center of creativity at the Rialto thank you for being here tonight it's very exciting um you they are here to come and talk about um next steps in their process the work they've done to date the Strategic plan that they've completed and the opportunity
the public to get involved with their long-term plans with this iconic Landmark so come on up bill crle is going to be giving the presentation he's the chair of the Rialto board thanks Jim all
right all right thank you so much Westfield Town Council for having us tonight uh my name is Bill Crandle I'm the president of the board of the Westfield Arts uh Collective and I'm here with what I hope you agree is a very uh exciting update about the Rialto
Theater and then we're going to unveil the renderings of its uh proposed reimagining um the Rialto um as we know it's a hundred years old um and I'm you know ambivalent to say that I've been here for more than half of them uh my first memory of the Rialto was from the
back of my mom's station wagon the Marquee had one word on it and it was there all summer long jaws and uh just wanted to say that while we all love movies uh due to Market uh changes and you know human behavior um if we were building the
Rialto right now we would not create a six theater movie theater we would create something entirely different so that's what we're here to talk to you about which is the reimagining of the Rialto um we are creating a home for our community to create showcase and enjoy
the Arts all kinds of Arts so that's from live music performances to art classes to podcast recordings to formats that haven't even been invented yet and yes of course movies and another thing that's very important to us is as well
as this being flexible we want to make sure that people are able to drop in show up so a community living room for the Arts if you will for people to be able to come by and see what's going on for the at the Rialto as well as buying tickets you know for uh shows and for
classes I want to just start out with a brief history just to catch everybody up as everyone may not know um um all of The Saga of the Rialto it closed as a movie theater in 2019 in 2020 the mayor and you find people passed a resolution
designating the Rialto as an area for development allowing us to preserve it as a place for the Arts and we thank you for that and that is what allows us to show you what we're going to show you today uh in 2021 our nonprofit group the
Westfield Arts Collective was founded to purchase the Rialto um later that year year we received a $5 million donation from an anonymous donor which has really uh you know added a tremendous amount of fuel to the project and we hosted um a lot of
specialty events um uh in the time um after that everything from a popup multi uh media uh Museum from the MLK Foundation to uh an Andrew McCarthy book reading and uh yes that handsome fell from St Elmo fire is from Westfield uh
the key will be flexible spaces as we talked about always mapping to the community's need um and in order to do that we had to really talk to a whole lot of people led by web management so we hired uh multiple different um
professionals and experts um and they did a strategic business plan for us uh and that was meeting with everything from local Arts organizations to businesses to community groups about how they would best uh use the Realto we also hired fundraising Consulting uh
Consultants the angeletti group Suzanne's with us here tonight um and we have been interviewing uh potential donors and we've been seeking out grants and Foundations uh we've been working closely with the NG uh njeda and their new Cafe program which is very exciting
um and that's set up um to to fund uh programs exactly like ours that is for the proliferation of the Arts um we've also worked with Architects Alex anelli and Mills and snoring to make sure that the vision of what we're doing is mapped to an actual uh space and again back to
the flexibility the flexibility so um with that I'd like to unveil them for you so you can see the renderings awesome here we go so I'm just going to quickly walk you through as you can see we have preserved um the Marquee and the overall look um of the
Rialto itself so from the outside it still looks like the same building that we know and love but it's a lot brighter there's a lot more windows a lot of black paint in there now cool let's go to the next uh photo great now you can see inside this is the big performance
space and you'll see in the next photos it doesn't always have to be a big performance space but this allows us to be able to have uh live music that is retractable seating so that goes away and that's something that uh again makes it a lot more multifunctional but this
is where we'd be able to host special events organizations can host events there as well receptions Etc I'm sorry can you go back to that yeah sure please um can you give us just a better orientation of what so as you're looking through that um performance space out
through doors is that looking on to Central AV yeah where central yep so that's yeah right on Central Avenue Okay window oh great yeah terrific that's great okay thank you
cool next slide please and then you can see this is as if we were to take the top off the building so you can see some of the multifunctional there's multiple classrooms there um and various different activities going on at once one of the things we want to do is in working um with a lot of people here is
not only bringing our own programming but making sure that we're partnering with lots of the different uh organizations so for example JCC reached out to us about you know hosting their Film Festival here etc etc so to make sure that let's just say next door to the town bookstore if they're doing a
bigger reading have it at the Rialto so we want to build lots of embassies on foreign soil at the Rialto so lots of people can spot through their events great next um and can you do the same thing on that side um so just tell
us so there's so it looks like there's two main entrances exactly so you you'll see that uh better in the next slide but you are right now um so that is uh East Broad Street there the Rialto Marquee where it is and now you're on Central looking at the side of it there so you're looking at the side of the
building from Central Avenue which is going to be our new entrance but currently it's the side of the building so and what are those rooms then that we're looking at on the far right side of the slide store right right but what are they going to be that's right so right
now those are those are going to be classrooms and flexible spaces yeah that the new entrance on the first floor okay yep so that's where you'll enter for performances exactly and you know what we can do is Elliot let's go to the next slide and you'll see there great so if
you look over to the right see the center of creativity uh lettering over there so that's going to be the new entrance um and it will be a much more inviting uh place for people to as opposed to what's there now correct great terrific okay any
questions about the renderings or any of the layouts of it before we go all right okay let's keep going yeah yeah David yeah yeah they're going to be publicly posted on our website yeah yeah
terrific sure yes so that is the center for creativity. art yeah I'll say that again Center for creativity. art yeah that's a that's a thing yep yep exactly okay and I have another exciting
update is that um due to the um we when we closed there was a flooding and some damage to the building we're making some repairs to the building um and we are going to be able to open a limited portion of the Rialto soon to be able to
do um just some Showcase of the Arts um and as well as raising awareness for our cause so we're going to be doing raising awareness raising funds and the analogy we're using it's a little bit like opening up a food truck to raise awareness for the restaurant that is to come it's great and really what we're
looking for is um we need uh everybody's involvement we're looking for the community of Westfield in particular we're looking for fundraising finance and marketing expertise so if anybody has those please reach out to us and then obviously also then we're looking
for people's support both for our long-term um and our short-term needs um so we are open currently uh for donations as well and there's your friendly uh QR code um as well as campaign at Rialto Westfield can I ask a question about this yeah
yeah so how much so you said there was a $5 million donation so how much on top of the 5 million has to be raised in order for that to happen in order that to be it's going to be about uh it's going to be upwards of $25 million on top of the five um on top of the five
yeah yeah and is there a time frame in which this has to get done or is this like like if it doesn't happen in the next two years is there a separate plan or like what is the time right so the um so the time right now is that right now we're working very closely with the njeda and they have tax credits that
they um award to different groups for the Arts and that is the big thing that right now that um we are working with them to raise the money for and then after that if that doesn't happen we will continue to recalibrate and continue to raise but the one thing that was very important to us that we we wanted to make sure that we did is open
the doors because there's no reason why we can't start celebrating the Arts in an a limit capacity do that so yeah yep so meaning you know if you let's say you're able to raise I up 10 million to do part of this and do it in stages
right so excellent question and that's something that we would uh contemplate if plan a does not work out and plan A right now the ngeda does not contemplate phasing so they do it all in one swoop but if uh that were not the case then I
imagine that would certainly be something we would contemplate yeah just to piggy back on that I'm just trying to get a sense of how long this is going to take so if we raised five like how much has been raised since 2020 on top of the five like have we raised a good we have not been actively fundraising so like we raised the five just to kind of start
and get going and then what we realized is early on we were doing activities and the activities were great to keep the building going and I hesitant to call it a mixed blessing but when the building was closed that allowed us to really focus on the work of the future creativity and what we're really so
excited about is we know that there's so many people wondering you know what's going on with the Rialto what's going on with the Rialto and it's been very important for us to just show everybody that a the Arts are expensive you know and it's not your normal like if you're a homeowner and you think it costs x amount of square feet or whatever when
you are talking about soundproofing places making buildings Flex ible Etc um you know is to be able to um to bring that to the community and have everybody decide and is it a nonprofit yes sorry I should have said that yes the uh Westfield art collection is a nonprofit
and we're all volunteers and if you if you'd grant me I'd love for them to all wave these are the hardworking people who have uh been working behind this you'll see in the reala there's lots of sticky notes as we've been you know just brainstorming what are all the different things people want to see and intervie
uh interviewing everybody about what they want to come to life so we know it's a bold vision and uh you know we state that up front but uh the Arts are bold and that's why we're here yeah do all of the funds that are donated go directly to the project correct correct
yeah okay yeah is there any thought of possibly getting like a corporate sponsor to donate money yeah so we we've started having those conversations uh corporate sponsors as well as different funds foundations everything and that's really exactly why we're making that call to action for people with fundraising and
finance experience as well because yes and we've started to have those conversations I'm only going to use the word started but please if you have experience in that field please come join us so yes what's the the entire thing would be built and whatnot have you guys given
thoughts to how much it would cost to maintain and operate that moving forward and how you would fund that we have yeah so that's that's part of our fundraising uh plan so depend there there's going to be a ramp up what we don't want to do is immediately say that okay we're going to have this big Arts organization and hire
a whole bunch of people and do that so we have like a a more of a state a phase plan for that portion of things but yes sois we do have operating budget that we have projected out for five years and one of the things that we didn't mention
but the all of those classrooms are going to be rental spes that is going to be income that is going to be stable we're also going to theater that can betiz for events it's retract walls and retract seats so that's going to be added in we have a
cafe is to be additional income so we do have those sources of revenue and then you know we've allocated for expenses and expens and so we do have that operating and I just also want to say if any of
you want like a more detailed sort of one of us to do a presentation kind of behind all of those details we love to do that because what we really need is this entire Council support this big
grant that we're going for this this big government grant which is literally going to be what builds this theater one of their biggest requirements is that you must have your your Council your Town Council and mayor write a letter of support so we want to make sure that we
can you guys all the inform hopefully get a response I I just want to ask a technical question so were people at home were they able to hear what CTI was saying or do should we come up and have
her repeat at the mic yeah yeah C come say all of that again no just dawned on me as you were finishing that unless you're at the mic people at home can't hear it and I think what you're saying are important things and um you know including how to get
more information how to get involved more about how the use of the space is going to take place because people are really excited to hear about all these great plans exciting as the building is I think what's H going to happen inside
the building is even more thrilling not only is it this big community space where we're going to you know bring people in from all times of day whether it's to come and look at the gallery or sit at the cafe or have a your book club there or you know meet someone there or
if it's to come to a classroom or come to a a I don't know a lecture or a theater or a concert but we actually do have a model for revenue and that is going to be through rentals and it we hopefully we partner with our community
to have those rentals those classrooms are going to be filled hopefully every day you know morning through night and that is what's going to help us with our Revenue source as well as renting out the other space as well as the cafe sales as well as anything else that we can you know maybe a gallery maybe we'll
we'll be able to sell art so yeah there's PL plenty of sources of revenue that we have um we have allocated for um we I also just again reiterating that Council support is going to be instrumental um this this grant this big
large government grant the cafe program we are a stellar candidate for it and really it's ours to lose so which means that if we just have to line everything up we are doing all the hard work on our end and we hope that the council will support us for this project and we're
happy to give you all the information that we have right now to make sure that happens um and then um again the the call for um for community help if you have ever been worked on a campaign if you have worked um for a nonprofit if
you are well-connected in the community if you um know if you sit on a foundation or know someone that does I mean this is kind of the start of our campaign so we have to establish leadership in a campaign Council so this is where we are reaching out to our
community because we realized honestly we are a small group but we have so much talent and experience in the community that it would it would be foolish not to reach out so this isn't you know hey we're not we're not putting shovels in the ground we're asking for help so we
can get to the point where we can put shovels in the ground can I just ask a question about the grant is the grant what does the grant do so the New Jersey uh Eda Cafe program is for Arts organizations that are either um uh you know uh like us building from the ground
up or that are uh completely revamping so um what it does is if you qualify it provides you um tax credits these tax credits are distributed over five years so the way we would utilize this grant
is if we got it we would get a promisory note we would monetize that promisory note and hopefully get a you know a loan or a or a donor to give us a fund uh a loan for a short period of time to build the building once the building is built
then and it's in operation then you have you get these grants over five years and then you sell them and recoup the money so you sell them to you know someone who would buy them from yeah for the tax credits and um you know they would the ngd is going to the the the program is
going to help us partner with someone to purchase those grants so they are going to try and help us as much as we can but again we have to have all the groundwork we have to be a center that's inclusive we have to make sure that we are diverse that we are um reaching out to the community that we are open a certain
number of hours that we provide art you know really Ro bus Arts um you know um programming and and we have a really good financial plan which we have done all of that work and that's what we've been doing all this time when we've been quote unquote closed even though we've
you know managed to put together a fabulous sidewalk Gallery every month can ohine for that appliation so the application should go live in the spring and hopefully sometime in the fall or early winter we would know if we had
actually um one I guess or we had actually been selected to proceed with the program yeah to milon this.2 billion tax credits together you got to repeat it just just repeat thank you just I
just want to make sure there are a lot of people who watch these meetings at home so I want to make sure that everyone hears all the information um every arts arts organization can apply for up to $75 million we'll be applying for much less than that but um
we um they expect to meet all demand in this first round of applicants that's why it looks so good for us plus honestly we're a model candidate based on um some of the work the mayor had has done previously And discussing how these
programs should be set up with the ngeda yeah that's great ctie could you also just share with us and people watching a little bit more about how the whole timeline rolls
out assuming you know that money's come in as um expected so when when will all the construction be done like what are some of the Milestones that we can be anticipating right so for now the goal is to open the building up for
fundraising events we anticipate if we did get let's say the we did get the grant it would take 13 months for The Architects from you know the day we say yes to actually put shovels in the ground and then the actual project would take another eight months or so so we
are still several years out before we have a finished complete building and hopefully in that interm we will be able to utilize the building for some of these programming and events and proof of concept type events um but it is a
while away and that is actually just you know very standard we looked at tons of peer institutions and how long it takes them to get off the ground and we saw everything from 3 to 10 years so we're you know we're kind of that's what it takes and and in terms of the money I
know sometimes it's a little bit um shock like a little sticker shock to hear that number but again we are kind of right in the middle for for a building of that size um and again another exciting thing I mean we want to make it a green building it would be a anchor to our town to our you know it
would start an Arts District it would draw people all over so economically it would be a huge boost to our businesses so but again we are probably two to you know two years plus out in terms of
timeline the Big Cliff there is the architectural designs themselves so to take it from renderings then we would upon getting the grants then commission The Architects to really do that work which is timec consuming and expensive so that's something that we wouldn't do until getting the grants and that's the
biggest long poll in the construction process great and then Bill you mentioned that you're going to open up the doors for some limited um events Etc when does that happen so that uh we will get back to you on the specific time into that but
we're expecting summerish for that to happen and there what we're planning to do is to just uh also invite um uh local artists as well as people who are from Westfield and have people do different different popup events so you're going to see talks and you're going to see live music and screenings we want to
basically do um all the different formats that we plan to showcase at the Rialto in the future okay great and we can learn all about this at Center for creativity. artart okay um well that any any other
questions have you in any spoken to anyone at the library library at this point to see if there's any joint yes we have and interestingly enough we have our board meetings there third Tuesday of the time so we have we have as well as the
historical society and everybody so we're speaking with everybody and if there are other organizations out there who are interested in this project please get in touch with us and we'd love to speak with you and I have to imagine that um it helped a lot for us to donate early um
to this project as a booler to the uh Grant application that's exactly right the grants have told us that so thank you for that Linda because the grants have also said like what is the community doing and what are they showing so uh a first portfolio of donations from the grants of all helps
so yes okay great um well thank you very much for the presentation um everyone at home please go check out the website and see the renderings it might be a little hard to see it on our Clos caption TV here um and it's just fabulous to you
know see this all coming to fruition and so thank you all to all of the people are sitting on your board and all of the others involved in the process because um it looks it really looks beautiful thank you as C was saying we're going to have more updates as the grant comes in
so we'll be back you'll be seeing more of us and thanks so much for your continued support great work yeah great [Applause] great okay Jim I think you might want to come up and make a couple comments before we get into the rest of the agenda uh okay changing here
so exactly and if people from the center for creativity can stay to answer any other questions at the end that's great or we'll reach out to you whatever works for you thank you thank you all for coming tonight thank you acting mayor no problem um I just want to make a comment
a few comments about um our favorite topic which is about to do in in a couple hours snow um we've had uh some some smaller snow storms of the past few weeks uh one other one coming tonight looks to be hopefully much of uh very little little snow maybe this later this
week as well but s of mind the residents we've been uh because these storms have been sort of on the cusp of what we designate of plowable storms versus uh non- plowable storms uh we've been noticing that when we have plow uh we're right on the cusp of that three inches
and we're seeing a lot of people of course we don't we had two Winters before this snow was up very prevalent so people tend to forget what the rules are how to how to act during a snowstorm but we're seeing these past few weeks now people are not shoveling their sidewalks especially around schools people aren't moving their cars off the
street to allow our plows to get to curb to curb uh people throwing snow back in the street obviously so these are all things I just want to remind the public that um for smaller snowstorms they're not um they don't compound a lot but you get back-to-back snowstorms or one big snowstorm and then cars in the street
sidewalks not being shoveled becomes a problem uh especially around school areas or the downtown area and uh I just want to remind the public that when we do something these Nixels out and remind people what the rules are we need everyone uh to comply uh it makes the town's operations more efficient uh
easier to get things clean and of course we had some experience of this many years ago where if you did have back-to-back large storms you then if you don't do those things and comply you're affecting potentially Emergency Services you know narrowing roadways for ambulances fire trucks to get into and so forth so just just a PSA to the
public that please get your cars off the road if you can we have made uh Arrangements the past few storms when now made these announcements a Memorial Pool parking lot is available uh if you're close by there to park your car there to get it off the street if you have no room in your driveway you have college kids home have extra cars for
example uh there are some streets in town that have alternate stus street parking where it would obviously be very helpful to have that one side cleared and then we go back the next day and obviously take care of the other side of the street these are all things that were very well thought out after the blizzard of 2016 where we had a very tough time after that and all these
policies were put in place after that so uh just a reminder to the public and uh we need their cooperation to make this actually very safe and very efficient for a public works department so that's it thank you thank you Jim okay um may I have a motion to
approve the minutes uh from the Town Council conference and regular meetings of January 28th 2025 um move by councilman dardia second second by councilman Healey any discussion all in favor yes oos this
motion is carried now it's time for open discussion by citizens anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the Council on any subject on which the council has jurisdiction please state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to 5
minutes Rob G oh I'm sorry thank you Rob galgano 939 Boulevard nice to be back I'd like to thank mayor brindle for her recent comments regarding immigration in a time when kindness is in short supply and our currency is not
the dollar but instead chaos lawlessness and destruction we must remember these immigrants are people and they do a lot of the hard work we Americans are unwilling to do I'm especially interested to see how things go this coming spring with Westfield residents
heavy Reliance on professional lands escaping it's an interesting question and I guess we'll have our answer soon enough for those of you concerned about the enforcement of immigration law and perceived lawlessness of the Immigrant population may I remind you that the
current occupant of the White House was found guilty of 34 felonies so please spare me any despair you may have over that over people who are really doing real physical labor and not playing golf all the time as if that weren't enough here's a fact that will really bake your noodle
there's currently an unelected South African billionaire in a band of techno nerds rifling through the computer systems of our government rewriting code copying databases turning off legal payments is there a reason this has prevalence to yes I'm about to get to
that all right thank you all right you're welcome sorry I understand uh all of this is technically unwise as well as in violation of numerous laws uh if you want to get upset about statutes being violated Why not start there you'll have a lot to work with so what does this have to do with
Westfield this chaos lawlessness and Destruction has real devastating effects on the community last week I was approached by a neighbor who's going around knocking on our doors asking for a favor this gentleman is an agent for the FBI doing his job enforcing our laws
keeping the country safe he's currently in Jeopardy of losing his job because he was assigned to cases involving January 6th riers and it seems a certain Lawless president has determined all of those agents have to go he's asking his neighbors to call our federal officials
in our case Senators Booker and Kim who have both been vocal and visible and Congressman Kean who is very invisible he uh certainly won't return any of my phone calls perhaps some of you could ring him up additionally a friend of mine who
also lives in town works for the veterans administration is currently looking for other employment as he feels his position the VA is somewhat tenuous he works as a trainer and is involved in the dreaded Dei diversity Equity
inclusion now who could be opposed to noble goals like that probably the same folks who couldn't handle Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Super Bowl they're not like us I'd like to share with you a direct quote from our conversation the fear is
real I am not alone this UNC certainty is problematic he went on to describe the current work environment as toxic and hostile so there you are local manifestations of Nationwide problems for good or bad we are all connected in
the end we often make a choice laws apply to everyone they apply to no one will we choose chaos and destruction over safety and stability I don't have a good answer for that one thank you Rich panuski 233 Charles
Street tonight I would like to bring to your attention three issues for which I'd like to get a response the first issue relates to the report produced by topology for the town of Westfield regarding the fourth round affordable housing assessment of the DCA number this report was dated as well as issued
on January 14 2025 at the last Town council meeting two weeks ago I asked of topologies calculations in support of their conclusions will be made available for review there are several factors such as valuation assessment income capacity and
average allocation which are cited in the report but not supported by any calculations the reports appendix simply contain some basic analysis of the acreage of several properties Mr Gia indicated these calculations which the town paid for as part of the
consultant's fee should be readily available I could not find the calculations on the town's website this is quite an important issue for the town because as you are already aware the deadline for our response to the state is imminent I was Disturbed that we did not previously have these calculations
I'm now even more Disturbed that unless I'm mistaken we're still waiting to see the calculations what is the status my second issue relates to to some discussion that occurred during the most recent Town budget open discussion meeting I questioned the line item in a
preliminary Town budget bullet outline regarding some monies allocated for Source system assessment councilwoman habgood clarified that the assessment was in fact an existing condition assessment of the current system I asked if that assessment involved any analysis
of current or future capacity as it relates to the plan development in Westfield Mr gildia commented that the 2025 preliminary budget line item for sewer system assessment does not include any analysis of current or future capacity he also advised that that that
analysis had been done in the past by the raway valley sewage Authority can you please advise me as to the specific document wherein that analysis was presented and advised me as to where I can find that document my third issue relates to an incident that occurred last week the
Widow of a deceased neighbor of mine approached me and asked me to sign a document regarding a request she will be submitting to the town to convert an existing property which is currently Zone commercial back to single family residential so that she can sell the property I say back to single family
residential because the property was originally Z zoned single family residential and my first experience with our Town's municipal government involved attending meetings during which that property was converted to commercial back in 1997 Tom you might remember it I think
you were there that night the property under discussion buts my property she briefly explained the process for converting back to single family residential after she left I remember thinking to myself that the process sounded pretty complicated I also
remember thinking to myself that it was pretty ironic that one Westfield Place could make some pretty major changes to an established plan rather easily things like changing the number of units changing the status of units from over 55 to open to the public changing the
layout and bade of major buildings Etc One Westfield place is able to do this because of the eminent domain afforded by the state laws for properties designated as areas in need of Rehabilitation Redevelopment in fact the entire town of Westfield was declared an area in need
of Redevelopment rehabilitation in 2020 now I'm not here tonight to question the state's laws that's for the judges and Trenton to iron out I am however wondering about at what point our town will no longer be an area in need of Redevelopment and
Rehabilitation I wonder about this because of the inequity that exists between our town citizens and our Town's business partners in the arena of things like zoning ordinances my recent chance meeting with my neighbor's Widow reminded me of how onited the process
truly is and so I ask it has been five years and our current mayor's term expires this November when will we no longer be a town in need of re Redevelopment Rehabilitation thank you anyone else thank you Mr
pusi all right well I will close public comment then and um address the people who came up to the mic um Mr galgano thank you for your comments I think it is important for all of um our neighbors to know that we're here to help them if
they're running into circumstances that were not anticipated and if they do need assistance um you know to or have questions to please reach out um because we'd be happy to help guide them um as it relates to Mr panuski um uh
comments uh Jim you might want to come up because I know well certainly in the um committee that's working on affordable housing we have looked at the calculation um I thought we were going to add it to the paper that was on the website but maybe we just haven't done
that yet there's been a lot of things going on yeah in reference to that so we did to topology to get um the calculations added as it's not ready yet Grant was away on vacation the gentleman who is doing that so we will have that added to the report but the committee uh uh we we did talk about those so that is
just not done yet but that will be done in reference to Mr panic's comments by the sewer system um and the assessment that was discussed at the budget meeting we had in this room a few weeks ago he asked the question about um heess assessment and then he also asked question about capacity uh I didn't mention a report rather I think I what I
said was that the rvsa were a member of the radway value sewage Authority rbsa and that we know that we have extra capacity we're one of the largest towns in the rbsa and the capacity our capacity issue is not an issue at all there was no report that I mentioned per se um but we have extra capacity based
upon the shares that we own as rbsa so there's no report per se about that and and and there's a last comment I'm not aware of this but there was nothing in the in the review that caused us any concern about having to make any changes I think that's the main thrust of it
right so um and then in terms of um the last point about um the designations for areas in need of rede Redevelopment and Rehabilitation um I I actually would like to just make a point about the fact
that the center for creativity in the Rialto um would probably be a housing um development today if it weren't for the efforts that we took to designate that area need and uh Rehabilitation that enabled the process to go forward and
for us to establish a not for-profit that could run the organization that could receive a um a large donation at the beginning and now we have um as a town control over the preservation of um iconic building and an opportunity for
Center for the Arts in the middle of our downtown um so all of those things that we're doing all those designations that we made were to take advantage of the Redevelopment laws in our state so that um we can build beautiful things like the Rialto so that we can do a better
job at historic preservation um so that we can help um homeowners potentially get some tax advantages by making improvements to their properties um so this is something that we want to continue because it
gives us a lot lot of great tools and abilities to grow and proceed in the way that we all want to so I'm sorry I just want to say one thing I think just the only correction I make uh to Mr Pan's comments is there are certain areas designated as areas in needed
Redevelopment that is true um the entire town is not a Redevelopment area yes thank you forif entire town is a area in need of rehab which is a very different thing has different regulations and so forth so that that the Redevelopment does not apply the entire town it's only the rehab that does
um the Redevelopment is only specific zones or properties that that have been done for various reasons right but it allows us to the areas in need of Redevelopment allow us to invite um uh parties in to propose to us ideas
for um development that we have control over um I have a question on to follow up on that because I I appreciate you making that distinction Jim and I I'm aware of it I was you just reminded me of it and and I understand Linda's points about the areas in need of Redevelopment um we you know discussed
that quite a bit we don't talk much about the areas in need of Rehabilitation and um seems to me that that's pretty broad broad brush to coat the rest of the town in area of re need of Rehabilitation is there a reason for it is the is there I understand your point about the benefit of the area of
need of Redevelopment is there a similar benefit for yeah um and I don't know Tom Tom might be the best person to address not pretend I'm Don Sam all terms of I'm not going to pretend I'm Don samon either one of the reasons first of all the both in area need a rehabilitation
and area needed Redevelopment have to meet certain um statutory criteria either meet the criteria or not there's not uh there is precedent for D designating although it's a expensive process to determine if it's an area in need of Redevelopment and then and then
uh designated as such with respect to the area need of Rehabilitation and the entire town it did meet the statutory criteria one of the Prime reasons why it was determined that it should go forward was because it allows anybody in this
town under the uh the statute or the ordinance that was passed by this Council uh who designates their property under our uh local historic preservation law to get a five-year tax credit on their property taxes it's a built-in
discount uh 20 40 60 80% um so if you live in the town of Westfield and if you uh designate your property locally historic and if you do improvements to your property you will be taxed less than if you don't and you
can only do that as a result of the area need a rehabilitation so that's primarily why that was done yeah so and there's no there's nothing bad about it there's nothing bad about that designation except that maybe it doesn't
have the best name because it makes people think that it's bad but it's actually good I have a personal opinion but fortunately you don't pay me for my personal opinion that's a policy judge whether it's bad or not as far as far as I can tell I haven't seen anything negative
that comes out of that designation it does offer the tax benefit if and an encouragement hopefully for people to designate their homes historic can I just one comment sure for Mr panuski um maybe it would be beneficial if you could email like I know you said you had
a difference of opinion and I know councilman uh several people are on the committee and worked really hard to to go over those numbers but it might be beneficial for you just to email the council what your what you think your discrepancies are and then then con
forward to topology and this way we'll have an answer you know this way the whole Council will know so this way there's you know concrete answer to it so that might be helpful if you could email us what you're can there's nothing to anal yeah I I think we know um councilman
it's we know exactly what Mr panuski is looking for we talked about it in our um subcommittee meetings around affordable housing um we went over the calculation during calls that we had the C the specific calculation just wasn't
included in the report um that was posted on the website so we just need to add it it's so but I we know exactly what he's looking for thanks okay okay bills Anda contract this on to bills and claims first time doing this thank you acting mayor I'd like to move
bills and claims in the amount of $3,228 36 may I have a second second second by councilman Saunders any discussion all in favor yes this motion is carried
um NE next on the agenda is reports of standing committees beginning with the finance policy committee councilman contract thank you acting mayor I have six resolutions to move as a package the first is a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw a warrant for dog licenses
for January 2025 the second is a resolution authorizing the CFO to refund Recreation Department fees the third is a resolution authorizing the CFO to draw warrants for participant payments to the Westwood for the annual Me and My Gal dance which resident should know sold out within minutes uh fourth is a
resolution to approve 2025 SE fees just to remind everybody they're not changing the fifth is a resolution to amend a contract for 2024 for the town's on call traffic safety consultant fees uh for reconciliation went up slightly over what was budgeted and lastly a
resolution authorizing an award of contract for the purchase of the main and pool cover for Memorial Pool may I have a second second second by councilman d Gala any discussion discussion okay councilman Hy Hy I'm
just going to use this opportunity to talk about the uh pool at Memorial Pool and the cover of that pool because actually it reminds me of the Rialto project in the 1960s there were numerous
swimming pools in the area and I can name them willig Gro with Highland mindin nagan Manor Park Park of course Shaka and Echo Lake not a single one would allow a black family to join and because of visionary people in
the late 60s in Westfield the town government part of the African-American Community the Westfield Memorial Pool was put in place in 1970 I would happen to be the first head lifeguard swim coach and uh swimming lessons
instructor this was a very dicey proposition no a lot of people didn't think it would work and why is a town spending bonding money to do this it's 55 years and every day in the
summer you can see people of all Races at that pool anyone can join if they want to it's been a huge financial success and uh Our Town Administrator was also early employee of of the Town
pool uh this pool has been such a I have to point something out the main pool is only three and a half to four feet I believe this was a huge safety Innovation we don't want people drowning
this the the the two architects and I happen to know them uh they also designed the diving tank with 172 fet which was completely unheard of but this was a Visionary project just like I'm
seeing the Alto project can be and it needs support uh and it needs Vision but uh in this case we're we're awarding a contract we want to award a contract that preserve the pool in the in the winter months and uh it it's something
that we we should do it's like an investment if you will just like the Rialto project thank you very much thank you councilman councilman dardia thank you acting mayor uh I would like to move General ordinance number 2025
d02 on first reading we didn't on those maybe we should go back do that then you got all I got all wrapped up in your comments which were a little off topic but it's okay we appreciate
them wait I yes um so all in favor of the finance policy um resolutions any opposed great this motion is carried and next the public safety transportation and parking committee councilman Guardia thank you acting mayor I would like to
move General ordinance number 2025-the about the intersection of Lennox and Benson and uh we're talking about replacing a yield sign with a stop sign on Lennox at
Benson I have second second second Mo by councilman contract any discussion uh town clerk would you please uh call the role council members dardia yes
dagala yes Keir yes Saunders yes Aro yes cont yesy yes acting mayor yes this motion is carried next is the code revieww and town property committee councilman contract uh I'd like to move a resolution authorizing participation
and support for the community solar PR program in Westfield this would be our second uh second participation uh opportunity in this program for residents may I have a second second second by councilman dardia any discussion can can we just mention what
we said in the conference session yeah I can I I'll provide a brief update to the to the residents on this this is really a win-win opportunity for Westfield residents for those residents who don't have the opportunity to put solar on their property you can actually now
benefit from solar that's actually produced offsite through the State Community solar program so this is the second round of the program the first round was several years ago and we had 165 residents participate the program has actually been revised and I would argue improved so participating
residents will see on average a 30% decrease and your electricity Supply costs so right now you're paying psng a certain charge per kilowatt hour for this program because solar is much cheaper to produce obviously you'll see
a 30% reduction in that the last time this program was implemented you got two separate bills PSC and G Bill showed a 20% discount and then our partner which is a company called solar Landscapes would send you a separate bill this time around it's merged together into one
bill so you get one bill from PSG that reflect refs that 30% on average discount so from the co code committee's perspective as well as the green team's perspective which is the the the the volunteer organization that brought this opportunity to the town um it's a it's a
win-win and almost a no-brainer so hopefully the council will support it I would encourage all residents to sign up I'm sure that the uh the uh will will provide the information on how you can sign up solar Landscapes will send a mailing out to all households promoting
the program but it is first come first serve so you need to act quickly thank you councilman all in favor yes yes any opposed great the motion is carried great um I'd also like to move a
resolution authorizing a local property acquisition Grant agreement with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and to accept a grant award just by way of background this is the next step in the process to use the grant to acquire the former uh Mr Loop property at
Central and South great may I have a second second second second by councilman armento any discussion great please call the RO council member yes yeser yes yes armento
yes contract yes yes AC mayor yes the motion is carried and before I ask for a motion to adjourn I just wanted to thank again everyone who came from the Rialto tonight and all the hard work that you've done um and to remind everyone how important it is to go check out the
website check out um the the what's happening at the building and make donations um in time and um dollars toward the effort that is going to um be such a centerpiece for our town going
forward um so with that may I have a motion to adjourn great uh second second great counc Council mchir thank you for the second all in favor yes okay opposed
this meeting is adjourned and the motion is carried thank you